Huckabee, who last walked the employee/candidate tightrope in the run-up to the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has, among other things, reportedly been scheduling campaign planning meetings and courting donors and GOP insiders. After the Washington Post reported on the many concrete steps Huckabee was taking towards mounting a run — and highlighting the balancing act he and his team were trying to strike in order to avoid losing his Fox News contract — the network announced it was "evaluating his status" at the network. (Huckabee and his allies have also repeatedly cited his role at Fox with helping keep him in front of voters.)

A month later, and the network hasn't provided any updates. In the meantime, Huckabee is happy to use his Fox News show to aid a potential run. For example, on the November 22 edition of Huckabee, he hosted GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson's lobbyist to rail against the evils of online gambling. Adelson is a casino magnate with enough money to basically single-handedly bankroll a primary candidate (he donated millions to a super PAC that supported Newt Gingrich in 2012). Likely not coincidentally, the Washington Post recently described a ban on internet gambling as "the item on top of Adelson's wish list."